Greetings,

It is hard to believe the holiday season is upon us. As I reflect on the Fall semester, I am humbled by the great work of our faculty, staff and students to emulate the College mission in their daily work. This newsletter highlights how we prepare and inspire health leaders, professionals, and consumers through collaborative approaches to education, research, and service. In the health science disciplines, one of the most significant outcome measurements for quality of education, is national board pass rates. Over the last year, our students have been remarkably successful! Take a minute to review our "Mission Moments" and learn more about their accomplishments HERE .

Enjoy the holiday season, and please share your good news with us! CHS Dean
Scott Heinerichs, Dean, College of Health Sciences

CHS Affinity Event
CHS held its 2nd Annual College Affinity Event in October! It was great to see so many students come out to meet CHS faculty, learn about the wide variety of student groups in our college, and maybe even throw a whipped cream pie in the face of a faculty member! The nutrition department provided food and coffee, and a student DJ kept the evening fun and entertaining for all.
Mental Health First Aid Ramps Up
Trainers from the National Council for Behavioral Health came to WCU to train a group of 15 individuals, including six from WCU , to be Mental Health First Aid Instructors. The training was coordinated in partnership with the Chester County Office of Mental Health. The goal was to establish a larger pool of instructors to teach this important program on the WCU campus, and across our county. Over 1000 people have been trained on our campus to date!
Welcome Back Pat Croce
On October 16 we were happy to welcome Mr. Pat Croce back to WCU! In a 90-minute interview with Dr. Don McCown, Mr. Croce discussed " Living a Contemplative Life in a World of Action ." Faculty, staff, students, and community members enjoyed the conversation and interactive
Q & A afterwards.

"Take a Mental Health Day"
The 5th Annual Take a Mental Health Day Event was a great collaboration with the Criminal Justice Department, College of Education and Social Work, College of Sciences and Mathematics, and Student Affairs. The afternoon event featured Minding Your Mind speaker Jordan Burnham. Jordan shared a hopeful story of his struggle with mental health challenges in high school, culminating in his survival from a suicide attempt.

The evening presentation featured Ms. Tonier Cain and her story of growing up with trauma and its impact throughout her life. Ms. Cain's powerful story was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Charlene Lane of Messiah College, and important contributions by WCU faculty experts Dr. Nadine Bean, (Social Work), Dr. Vicki McGinley (Education) and Chester County Prison Mental Health Manager Elaine Ziegler. It was an informative and fascinating conversation!
Center for Contemplative Studies
The Center continued its Saturday Series with two special guests this fall; Harriet Stein, a registered nurse and presenter who teaches mindfulness that makes participants think, as well as laugh, and Dr. Vincenzo Giorgino, an Aggregate Professor of Economoic Sociology from the Univerity of Turin in Italy. Dr. Giorgino offered a workshop for faculty and graduate students, and a Saturday Series workshop o n "Community Life-Skills Workshop: Better living through contemplation."

For more coming events, please visit our site: Center For Contemplative Studies
FACULTY HONORS
Congratulations to the Recent CHS Retirees
Lynn Monahan-Couch (NUT)
Christine Moriconi (NUR)
Rebecca Reiber (HEA)
Charles Shorten (HEA)
Marcia Welsh (NUR)
Congratulations Dr. DeJoy!
Dr. Sharon DeJoy, (HEA) was awarded a grant by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. The funding was awarded for her project proposal, “ Access to Maternity and Obstetric Services in Rural Pennsylvania .” 
Congratulations Dr. Harry Holt !

Dr. Harry Holt (HEA), in collaboration with Assistant Professor Michael Gawrysiak of the Psychology Department, received a grant award from the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Bureau of Treatment, Prevention, and Intervention. The grant will fund their Opioid Prevention in Higher Education project.
Congratulations Dr. James!

Dr. Tammy James (HEA) was recently inducted in the 10th Annual College of Education, Health and Human Services Hall of Fame at her alma mater, Kent State University. The Hall of Fame recognizes those alumni whose careers and accomplishments have brought distinction to Kent State University.
Congratulations Dr. Katirai!
Dr. Whitney Katirai (HEA), in an inter-disciplinary collaboration wit h Dr. Dorothy Ives Dewey, Dr. Matin Katirai, and Dr. Megan Heckert of the WCU Geography Department, were awarded a grant by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. The grant funding was awarded for their project proposal, “ Planning in Rural Pennsylvania in 2020: Analysis of the Effectiveness of Municipal Land Use Tools.” 
Congratulations Dr. Sankaran!

Dr. Gopal Sankaran (HEA) was appointed by the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association to serve as the Chair of the Editorial Board of the  American Journal of Public Health  ( AJPH ), for one-year term, beginning November 2019 through October 2020. Dr. Sankaran served as the Vice Chair of the Editorial Board last year.
Three CHS faculty members were honored at the Spotlight on Research Event in November at the WCU Foundation; Dr. Monica Lepore (KIN), Dr. Christine Karpinski (NUT), and Dr. Cheryl Monturo (NUR). This event celebrates the outstanding contributions of our faculty who contribute nationally, and internally, to advancing scholarship and research in their fields of study.
CSD Communication Sciences & Disorders
In summer of 2019, 6 students participated in the CSD Study Abroad in Costa Rica program in San José, Costa Rica. Dr. Patricia Swasey Washington, the Bilingual Emphasis Coordinator (BECS) collaborated with faculty and other personnel of Universidad Santa Paula (USP) to provide 12 highly productive and educational days for the students. Activities included participation in various community and university-based (USP) clinics, collaborative classroom exercises with USP students, Speech Therapy Day, and several cultural excursions in San José and its vicinity.
Each year, the organization of faculty retirees from WCU presents a Service Award to a member retired for at least 5 years who does significant volunteer work that is not an extension of his/her pre-retirement professional life. The 2019 awardee is Mike Weiss, (left) who retired from WCU's Department of CSD in 2013. Since then he has been volunteering at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, at Bryn Mawr Hospital, on the Board of Directors of Arts Holding Hands and Hearts, a non-profit based in Coatesville, and he has been Judge of Elections in Radnor. 
HEA Health
The American Public Health Association held it’s annual conference in Philadelphia in November. Several faculty members attended from the College of Health Sciences, as well as Health students and members of the Social Work Department. WCU’s MPH program hosted a table in the Exhibit Hall and an information session. Both faculty and members of the WCU administration participated in the presentations.
The SE Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC) sponsors a two-year extracurricular program, "AHEC Scholars," that involves 90 hours of work – completing online modules, participating in service learning, and attending in-person sessions. This experience prepares allied health students interested in rural and underserved care to provide continuously improving care in a transforming health care system. WCU hosted the inaugural in-person session for the 2019-21 cohort of participants. As one of their interactive experiences, students created masks that displayed some traits of their allied health professions, as well as some personal traits.
Undergraduate Public Health major Jamara Griffin has published a children's book! Jamara was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 8. Consequently, she gained a passion for the health and wellness of children.

" Healthy Adventures with Kayla is a bilingual book about a young girl sharing her passion of health and her dream of becoming a health teacher one day. Kayla will be introducing the importance of healthy eating and the health benefits that result from it. By the end of the book, readers will have the opportunity to create healthy snacks that Kayla introduces in the story."
KIN Kinesiology
In November, Dr. Craig Stevens spoke as part of a panel providing a Congressional Briefing on the National Youth Sports Strategy, sponsored by the Congressional Caucus on Youth Sports and the American College of Sports Medicine. Other panelists included WCU alumni Jim Worthington, Karin Pfeiffer, PhD, and Katrina Piercy, PhD. WCU Assistant Professor Rick Howard also attended representing the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
The Kinesiology Department hosted the 18 th  annual Level 1 – Sports Performance workshop with USA Weightlifting in November. Leo Totten, WCU HPE alum 1973, was the lead instructor assisted by Bryan Stevens, assistant Strength and Conditioning coach for WCU. Sixteen participants, from up and down the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, learned how to teach and coach individuals interested in participating in Olympic style weightlifting.
Congratulations! Senior Exercise Science major Danielle Sterner was awarded a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Foundation Assistantship. She is one of five awardees. The recipients will work closely with and be mentored by an experienced strength and conditioning coach and are awarded a $10,000 stipend over a 5-month period while completing 40 hours a week.
This is a very competitive program sponsored by the development arm of the NSCA.
NUR Nursing
Nursing Students in the Community
Nursing Students were busy providing flu vaccines this fall! On the left, is a photo of the group that served at St. Agnes Day Room in West Chester. Nursing students also collaborated with Student Health Services for flu vaccine clinics on campus. Over a third (546) of the 1,428 doses givenwere given by nursing students.

Junior and senior students participated in a bioterrorism exercise coordinated by the Chester County Health Department.
A clinical Nursing student group volunteered at Project Cure in Jennersville in November. Project Cure receives donations of surplus medical supplies and sends them to countries in need. It is a national organization, whose Mid-Atlantic distribution center is located in Jennersville. The group toured the warehouse, learned about the Project Cure mission, and sorted medical supplies.
NUT Nutrition
Department of Nutrition students and alumni presented the results of their research projects at the Research and Creative Activity Day in October. The event, hosted by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, highlights student and faculty research and creative activity from all academic disciplines.

Pictured are Abby McMahon, Julia Sutton, Josephine Rohde, Mellissa Gallagher, Aubrey Redd, Michael Rossi, and James Loesch
The Nutrition Department continued its efforts to promote healthy eating to the CHS faculty, staff and students. Dr. Jeanie Subach led a team of Nutrition majors for "Oatmeal Wednesday," and this semester added "Meatless Mondays," which provided a delicious plant-based lunch for $5. The money will be used to fund a Nutrition scholarship. The "Oatmeal Wednesday" program was expanded to offer a hearty oatmeal bar, complete with all the fixings, to students on Wednesday mornings from 7:00 to 10:00 am. They love it! Plans are for both programs to continue and expand in spring 2020.
Several members of the Department of Nutrition attended the Food and Nutrition Conference (FNCE) in Philadelphia in October. The conference also provided an opportunity to host their first alumni event. We were delighted to connect 14 faculty and staff members with over sixty of our Nutrition program alumni!
SPM Sports Medicine
The Sports Medicine Department hosted 30 students from Western Montgomery Career & Technology Center and Technical College High School. The students came to WCU to learn about a career in sports medicine. Dr. Daniel Baer coordinated the visit with the help of students and faculty from the athletic training program. Their day on campus included a tour of Sturzebecker HSC, meeting with students and faculty from the athletic training program, and completing activities in the cadaver lab, AT skills lab, and the athletic training facility
WCU athletic training students volunteered at the Annual Special Olympics Fall Fest at Villanova University. Certified athletic trainers and students from all over the state volunteered their time to assist athletes during this great event, network, and learn! Alum Linda Mazzoli serves as medical coordinator for the event, and our students found her for a picture. 
First year Master of Science in Athletic Training students had some great immersive clinical experiences, including two students who spent their summers gaining valuable clinical experience in the National Football League. Kevin Wiesner interned with the Indianapolis Colts and Quinn Sherer interned with the Baltimore Ravens.
The Spo rts Medicine Department will be celebrating 50 Years of Athletic Training education, May 1-3, 2020. The weekend long event will include alumni gatherings, Athletic Training Legacy Lectures, and will conclude with our annual Golf Outing on Sunday.

Look for details to follow, and mark you calendar now!
College of Health Sciences | West Chester University | 610-432-2825 | www.wcupa.edu/chs